ADAPTATTOOS

y'ever never need to have ideas?
huh?
oh.
well,
when i'm tattin' 'n' tooin', i almost never really need to have ideas.
at all.
y'see, now that the internet exists these last few years,
folks just steal their tattoo designs from people who post pictures of
tattoos they have, possibly ones that've been created by people with ideas,
although the spread of pinterest-inspired re-do-overs of tattoo imagery
is like a zombie outbreak pyramid scheme.
that's no joke.
certain ideas reproduce like rabbits, exponentially becoming a 'thing',
that eventually becomes SO cliché that fifteen years later it returns to vogue
as a classic throwback tattoo to the good old days.
damn.
and i'm not even a little bit joking.
so, these days i do a lot of pocketwatches.
like, a LOT.
and to be fair, i don't just trace a new name and time o birth onto one template.
i redraw an recreate every single one of 'em, if only to keep myself from
falling into an abyss of photocopied repetition.
and also, it's a small world, and an even smaller area,
and i doubt i could get away with it even if i was a lazybone moneygrubber.
hahaha.
ANYway, i tattooed ben, in honor of his new baby son,
who was NOT conceived to a certain country singer who 's namesake he may or may not be:

yup.
i cannot, for the life of me take a decent picture.
really, though, it's more about the snow day show-ups.
these dudes drove into town, in the snowy wintry icy roads of the north,
with a month-old baby and went shoppin' and sh!t.
mountain folks don't care at all, y'all.
they're gettin' these tattz no matter what!
i also tattooed another modified image on a woman from arkansas,
who now resides in the mountains to the north of here.
she came down just for a lil  baby tiny tat, because mountain folks don't CARE,
even when they're mountain folks by proxy.
dudes,
she got a skull and a rose behind her ear,
based on a picture of a skull and a rose inside somebody else's ear.
that's wild.

i drew it on with a marker, and buzzed into her brain for a little minute or two.
-
i had another 'nother appointment in between those,
but she cancelled.
y'know why?
the weather.
uh-huh.
and do y'know where she is from?
NOT the mountains.
so, obvi,
y'can't be drivin' to snow day tattdays if you're livin' south of the mountains.
rules is rules, i guess.
that's just the way it is.
these things happen.
i'm just grateful for internet images and mountain trekkin' movie checks, man.
i didn't need ideas, i didn't need to worry about attendance,
and i did what i do until it was all done.
that's what i do, and i'm happy it all worked together.
*
i also dug and dug and dug and dug through claustrophobic close-quarters snow piles.
yeah.
the snow fort now has three entrances, with room for more.
really, it's less of a fort, and more of a series of uncomfortable tubes,
but still,
that's kinda cool.
another 'nother hour should have me able to fit everybody in there without any problems.
i guess we'll see how it goes.
my whole body was red and rashy from snow and ice.
i had gloves so soaked i didn't even notice that the sleeves INside my jacket
were also sopping wet...
just like my feet and my socks and my knees!
(and that's with somebody's snowpants that i'm unsure as to how i've come by)
that's mountain person life, sorta.
work in it, play in it, every damned day in it.
there's nothing for it but to dive in and make the moments matter as best you can.
everything else is lowland griping,
and that's not invited;
never quiet, never soft.....